Vehicle Excise Duty (Hansard, 16 June 1988)

§ 99. Mr. Adley
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will seek to increase the road fund tax on a 53-seat coach from £85 to £850.

§ Mr. Peter Bottomley
No. Decisions on all excise duty rates are matters for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

§ Mr. Tony Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for 3Transport (1) how many unlicensed vehicles in the London borough of Newham have been detected in each of his Department's campaigns against motor tax evaders;
(2) how many unlicensed road vehicles have been detected in the current campaign in London being undertaken by his Department in conjuction with the Metropolitan and City police forces;
(3) how many prosecutions involving unlicensed vehicles arose out of his Department's campaign in London in May 1987.

§ Mr. Peter Bottomley
During the 1988 London campaign 62 unlicensed vehicles were reported within the borough of Newham. Figures for individual boroughs are not available for earlier years. In London as a whole 4,055 offence reports have been received in the course of the 1988 campaign. The comparable figure for 1987 was 2,900 and the number of resulting prosecutions in 1987 was in the region of 1,000.